M is for...err...have you guessed yet? Mali!

Mali....yeeeesss....did I say Mali on Wednesday? I think I said Mali.

Looking forward to the outpouring of grief, the proliferation of semi-transparent Mali flags as Facebook icons, a veritable plethora of Malian vexillology over the next 48 hours? No? Why not? Are we back to 'brown people' again?

There are calls in France for an end to public discussion of 'conspiracy theories'; all of them, however they might be defined, while the Chief Constable of Surrey has just been on the Radio apparently demanding machine guns! While our execrable excuse for a leader, the inadequate cockwomble Cameron, is desperate to be allowed to play brumm-brumm's with the grown-ups in Syria.

Not because there is any tactical or strategic need for a half-dozen of our remaining aircraft to join the vast armadas of Russian and US 'planes (already backed-up by the French and others with their half-flights), but because targeted strikes in Iraq isn't carrying enough 'prestige' for him...

I hate to say I'm right, but if you think all this is anything other than the chickens of money-based, oil-fuelled, Western-centric, capitalism coming home to roost, you're wrong!

Now - Let's see those Mali flags, please...

This has just gone round the free-thinking internet so fast I don't know who to credit, but they are a credit to humanity, and they know who they are!

M is for More toys tomorrow...

...Libya, Nigeria, Mali, Tunisia, Egypt...Crimea, Ukraine, Georgia, Transdniestria, Moldova... Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma . . . Peru, Mexico, Columbia...

Religious zealots, drug cartels, Marxist/Leninist ideologues, 'genuine' revolutionaries...we're all one species and we better find a way of getting along together soon, or there'll be no planet left worth living on.

With thanks to the artist Lee Marej for letting me use his image:

Deviant Art
Facebook

S is for Sickened

Funny how 129 French deaths get the entire Internet going red, white and blue, but 224 Russian deaths went unmourned by the same keyboard warriors a couple of weeks ago!

But then...Slavs? Not much better than brown people, huh?

The false wailing and gnashing of teeth, the metaphorical wearing of sackcloth and ashes, the mawkish sentimentality, the idea that millions of people were taken by surprise...again! Fuck Off! Middle-class, middle-aged, pro-establishment (the real problem), uneducated, fakery.

Grow up and educate yourselves, before it's too late. Read 1984 and watch the rush to push through Draconian law-enforcement legislation with open eyes, read Catch 22 and listen to the politico's speeches through open ears . . . I'll be standing over here in despair!

N is for Not Suprised

Who are we at war with? Eastasia or Eurasia?

Image - Wkipedia

It's the white bit we need to worry about as it's entirely a construct of Western intervention, colonialism, slavery, empire building and corporate land- and resource-grabs.

The only thing that surprises me about the last 16 hours is that people are still surprised! Orwell and Huxley warned us this was our future, how can we be surprised? Kafka and Heller patiently explained the madness we operate in and tolerate, how can we be surprised?

The answer - of course - is that the average citizen is a selfish, stupid, frightened creature with an abysmal knowledge of world affairs, his own country's political situation or the effects of capital on himself, those around him and the ecology of the entire planet.

It is a fact that in the next few days the sales of private body-armour (never to be worn) will go up, in countries that allow them (America) the sale of guns will peak this afternoon, and yet, tomorrow, the world will only have become slightly less safe!

If you are feeling surprised today; worried, confused, maybe a little frightened...my advice is go out and purchase another movie channel, subscribe to the new Games Workshop mechanism, buy a new iPhone, get a scarf. You can never have too many scarves in the scarf drawer. Order a pizza with ALL the extras. It's what the rulers want you to do, carry on as normal, ignoring the fact that normal is the root of the problem. The root of all the problems.

Oh, and you could get CCTV throughout the house, as you'll be doing a future government a favour if you prepare in advance of legislation!

To quote (misquote?) Private Baldrick -

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupiddidy stupid.

J is for...JE SUIS CHARLIE

The complacent, the disinterested, the politically ignorant/politically uneducated/politically 'old-school' dogmatic, the climate change deniers, yeah; even the liberal elite are going to have to get off their comfortable, fat, well paid, well-fed, grey, middle-class arses in 2015...we are blundering into the end of days, led by money-driven monkeys, thinking science will save us from ourselves, believing our kids and their kids will be 'all right', hoping technology will find/provide the answers before it's too late...really? I mean; REALLY?

J is for Just call me Wikileaks!

I found these stuffed inside a hollow log the other day, and felt that in the wider global interests of true and lasting peace, justice and democracy they should be made available as public documents...there was blood on the log...

'Civil' War

I was going to write about Army recruitment tonight as they are advertising on TV again, however we had today the news that B.Liar/Brown Trousers 'Consultative Group on the Past' [In Northern Ireland] is likely to recommend that all families affected by a death in/as a result of the troubles should receive a compensatory payment of around 12,000 pounds...

When I first heard the headline, I thought WTF! However as the news story unfolded in more depth, I could see the vague logic in it, I was then worried that it would only apply to the residents of Ulster, but it seems that the family's of British soldiers and foreign nationals (like three members of a Miami Show-band ?) will also get a payment.

I guess the thinking is that if a 'Known Player' was killed by the other side, without having ever been successfully prosecuted, his family aught to be entitled to the money, however all those who's 'Player' died after he was legally implicated in militancy (whether Catholic or Protestant) would then feel aggrieved.

Another argument is that it makes it look like crime pays, so do you pay more to the Army and Police families? That is no different - in terms of fairness - from not paying some at all, and presumably the bean-counters have worked out that in the long run it will save some money down the line; the idea being that once everyone has had the money they will all be more likely to come forward with information on unsolved crimes, missing persons etc...

However - I believe - a similar approach was not that successful in South Africa, where those who agreed to co-operate only served to implicate those who chose not to admit their roles, thereby requiring the lengthy, costly investigations and trials that they were trying to avoid in the first place! Note that the 'Bloody Sunday' inquiry has so far cost over £200million - presumably they're burning the money to keep the courtroom warm!

In balance I think this is a poor compromise, but what else could they have come up with, the aim in all these situations (Bosnia, The Basque-separatist region of Spain, SA, Cambodia, Rwanda et al...) is to normalise the citizenry without alienating one or other small group. Ultimately - once you have decided to make payments, you HAVE to pay everybody and you HAVE to pay them the same amount?

And lets face it at £12,000 (less than a years wages for all but the youngest/least skilled of the workforce), this money's no more than a token gesture and is hardly going to change lives.

I was lucky enough not to serve in NI, but friends did, I suspect they would have a hard time accepting this suggestion as readily as me?